BoG urges greater regulatory cooperation to safeguard financial stability

Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Johnson Pandit Asiama, has called for stronger collaboration among financial regulators, saying no single institution can effectively manage the increasingly interconnected risks confronting Africa’s financial system.

Addressing delegates at the Africa Pension Supervisors Association (APSA) Annual Conference in Accra, Dr Asiama said systemic risks now extend beyond individual sectors, making coordinated supervision essential.

He said pension regulators, central banks, securities regulators, insurance supervisors, finance ministries and deposit protection agencies all have different but complementary responsibilities.

“Each perspective is necessary. None, on its own, is complete,” he stated.

The Governor cited Ghana’s Financial Stability Council as an example of effective inter-agency collaboration.

The Council brings together the Bank of Ghana, the Ministry of Finance, the National Pensions Regulatory Authority, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the National Insurance Commission and the Ghana Deposit Protection Corporation to monitor emerging vulnerabilities and coordinate policy responses.

According to Dr Asiama, systemic risks rarely respect institutional boundaries, making information sharing and joint oversight increasingly important.

He stressed that effective macroprudential supervision depends on timely, comparable and sufficiently detailed data.

“If information is fragmented, delayed or defined differently across sectors, a connected financial system can appear to regulators as a collection of separate balance sheets,” he warned.

The Governor welcomed discussions on establishing an Africa Pension and Asset Management Data Hub, describing it as an important initiative for strengthening market transparency and financial stability across the continent.

He also praised the National Pensions Regulatory Authority for implementing risk-based supervision, updating operational guidelines and integrating information and communications technology governance into its supervisory framework.

Dr Asiama said closer regulatory cooperation would become even more important as Africa’s financial systems continue to expand and become more interconnected.